D&D 5E Inspiration: Exclusive, Group, or None

[Triumph_Fork]

Greetings everyone.

So... this Inspiration stuff:

As a DM who ran Pathfinder for 2 years, I often have a rule or two I forget to apply. One thing I'm not used to is awarding "Inspiration" in my new homebrew. People in my party, if not everyone, are decent players ranging in skill level who are all doing some great character acting. I wonder how I should go about awarding it.

So my questions are:
Do you think the inspiration system in 5e is a good system or not?

Should exclusive players get inspiration for character acting, should I give group inspiration for the entire party, or should I continue giving out none at all?

Thanks!

 

[Tony Vargas]

Inspiration is a not-very-D&D-like RP-carrot mechanic. You can safely ignore it if you don't feel like making RP a popularity contest with yourself as the judge...


Edit: OK, that was a little harsh. You can use Inspiration in other ways, for instance to shore up characters when players make mechanically-sub-optimal, but concept/situation/RP/dramatically-appropriate choices for them.

 

[Oofta]

As much as I like the theory of inspiration, I find myself rarely using it in practice. Fortunately it doesn't hurt much if you don't use it.

I do sometimes give advantage to people if they describe what they are doing or have a particularly good argument when trying to persuade someone and so on.

 

[Kalshane]

I was constantly forgetting to hand it out, too. What I've done because of that is (based on an Angry GM article, but modified) I give each character Inspiration at the start of every session.

If they have Inspiration and they're attempting an action that's tied to their Ideals or Bonds, they can say something like "Hey, my Ideal is to "Always defend the innocent". Can I get advantage on my Athletics check to save the princess from eel-infested waters?" and if it fits, I'll say sure. If they succeed, they get to keep their Inspiration. If they fail, they lose it. (Succeeding at something important to them keeps them inspired, while failing is dispiriting.) They can also just burn the Inspiration on an unrelated roll, as normal.

If they don't have Inspiration, they can regain it by succeeding at a difficult/dangerous task related to their Ideals or Bonds or by taking a setback related to their Flaws.

 

[Seramus]

I gave up on the Ideals / Bonds Inspiration thing.

Now I give out inspiration to the entire group at once for having really good ideas or making me laugh really hard. But only once per game ( or twice for really long games, or if you blow me away).

It can sometimes turn into a joke contest when the party gets desperate, but it really boosts morale when things are tough and they are trying to make me bust out laughing, and everyone else at the table is laughing, and I give them all inspiration and the battle has a chance to suddenly swing in their favor.

And it works for me in a sneaky way, because instead of getting down or sullen because of they might be losing, they are all making each other crack up and joking. Morale is so important.

 

[iserith]

Inspiration is great in my view.

The way I handle it is to put it in the hands of the players where I think it belongs. Each PC has one personality trait, ideal, bond, and flaw. When a player in my game purposefully plays to one of those characteristics, he or she may then claim Inspiration. They don't have to wait for the DM to give it to them or ask for permission. They just say "I do/did X - I'm claiming Inspiration for my bond..." for example, or words to that effect. The only limitation is that they can only gain one Inspiration per characteristic per session. That's four Inspirations every game for each if they play to those characteristics.

In practice, this works very, very well. I don't have to think about it and the players, knowing that Inspiration is available when they want it, frequently play their characters to the hilt.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The rules for Inspiration are pretty loose, and a lot of them can feel pretty meta-gamey, but you always have the option to just never award it.

The most sensible solution that I found was to automatically apply it whenever the character does something where they would feel inspired to try harder than normal. I guess you could tie it to their bonds or ideals or whatever, if you wanted to. If you're fighting the six-fingered man, you have advantage on your attacks, because it makes sense that you would be inspired to succeed.

 

[Shiroiken]

I have not given out Inspiration as a reward for RP, because I feel that takes away from the game itself. I've only awarded it as a milestone for completing story arcs. For example, in my last campaign the party got Inspiration after completing: the Temple of Elemental Evil (and slaying the weakened & bound Zuggtmoy), Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth/Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (and recovering Doud's Wondrous Lanthorn), Against the Giants (running Eclavadra back underground), Into the Depths of the Earth/Vault of the Drow (banishing Lolth's avatar), and Queen of the Demonweb Pits (forcing Lolth to abandon the abyssal plane). This made each of those milestones more meaningful, even if the events might not have been.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Inspiration is great in my view.

The way I handle it is to put it in the hands of the players where I think it belongs. Each PC has one personality trait, ideal, bond, and flaw. When a player in my game purposefully plays to one of those characteristics, he or she may then claim Inspiration. They don't have to wait for the DM to give it to them or ask for permission. They just say "I do/did X - I'm claiming Inspiration for my bond..." for example, or words to that effect. The only limitation is that they can only gain one Inspiration per characteristic per session. That's four Inspirations every game for each if they play to those characteristics.

In practice, this works very, very well. I don't have to think about it and the players, knowing that Inspiration is available when they want it, frequently play their characters to the hilt.

I do something very similar as well.

In addition, my players start out sessions with Inspiration. Another thing I like to do, is if the whole party has done something particularly well, or made a decision that helps keep the story/momentum going I award the entire party. For example, decide to press on after a combat with out taking a rest.

In short, I like Inspiration, and I like to be liberal with it.

 

[Li Shenron]

I have used Inspiration very rarely, and I don't use it as a RP reward because generally I prefer not to use individual rewards anymore (IMHO the players who play well reward themselves). I don't also use it as a milestone or quest reward either.

Instead, I have used it solely to compensate a player who purposefully makes a 'bad' choice to stay in-character. Like a player who gave up her treasure to charity. IMHO this is a good occasion to use Inspiration because it encourages players to make their PCs more real, and less like videogame characters who only go for maximum efficiency; but it doesn't feel like a reward, it feels like restoring fairness.